


padlocks and promises

by queenmcgonagall



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 12:56:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/687209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenmcgonagall/pseuds/queenmcgonagall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Promises are special, but what if you lock it up on a bridge? What if you throw the key in the water, touch fingers gently and walk away, leave your love there for others to find and to wonder about?</p>
            </blockquote>





	padlocks and promises

I bought a padlock.

It’s like this.

It’s cheesy, it’s stupid, it’s outrageously romantic, but he wants to do it. Louis’s not one for grand gestures of love; that’s Harry’s job. Harry brings home the flowers for no reason, Harry makes the pancakes in the shape of a heart. Harry steams up the mirror in the bathroom while showering and then writes ‘I love you’ on it, right before Louis goes in to shave.

Louis tries to tell Harry in other ways, just how much he means to him. He tries to spell it out with his fingers brushing Harry’s hips when they pass each other in the kitchen while making dinner. He chokes it out in the middle of sex, broken and wrecked, gasping the words into Harry’s neck while hunching over him. He takes a Sharpie and writes it on the sharp ridges of Harry’s shoulder blades, the ink staining and remaining there for days, a quiet reminder of words that can’t be said out loud yet.

But this, this is important. Louis should do this. He can just imagine Harry’s smile when he presents it to him and tells him his plan. That dimple will pop out and Louis will have to ignore the urge to kiss it.

Louis wants to do this for Harry; he imagines it will wipe away the sting of his barely-there denials. He wants to show Harry just how serious he is about him, wants to prove to him that Harry isn’t his plaything, that he’s not just toying with Harry and stringing him along for a ride. He wants Harry to know that Louis means forever. He wants vows and commitments and promises.

——————————————————————————————————

Harry runs one calloused thumb over the red metal, his lips curling in a shy smile, the dimple peeking out. His hair is messy and hangs in his face, one side flat from being slept on, and Louis has to sit on his hands to stop himself from running his hands through Harry’s curls. His sea-green eyes smile up at Louis, the corners drooping a little bit from sleep and Louis itches to kiss him awake, kiss him until he’s writhing under Louis, toes curling on the sheets and he’s begging for Louis’s touch.

‘We don’t have to, you know…if you don’t want to. If you think it’s stupid, it’s fine.’ Louis mumbles, fast and under his breath. He can feel his ears turning red, a flush creeping up his neck. ‘You know what, no, let’s not…’ he goes to tug the padlock out of Harry’s hands.

‘Lou…’ Harry whispers. Louis talks over him, shaking his head and attempting to uncurl Harry’s fingers from around the cool metal.

‘It was a dumb idea, it’s dumb, I was just being dumb and -’ Louis stops talking abruptly as soft pink lips brush gently across the corner of his mouth. Long fingers trace his ribs and he sighs into Harry’s mouth, all resolve lost and crumbling around them as Harry pushes him back into the pillows. Harry kisses down his cheek, neck, mouthing at his collarbone.

Harry mumbles something into the hollow of Louis’s throat and Louis doesn’t hear it.

‘W-w-hat?’ His breath stutters as Harry licks a stripe down the center of his stomach, laying soft kisses across the skin right above his waistband.

‘I said, I love it.’ Harry sits up and smiles at Louis and that damned dimple comes all the way out and he seems to be about 12, glowing and trembling with giddiness and youth and more than enough love. ‘I love it, Lou, it’s perfect.’

‘Ok.’ Louis smiles. ‘Now kiss me, please.’

———————————————————————————————————

They’re standing on the bridge and thousands of padlocks glitter and shine in the sunlight, catching the light and throwing it back in prisms that dance over Harry’s face. Harry clenches the key tightly in his fist, terrified that he’s going to drop it between the cracks of the bridge before they have a chance to clamp the padlock next to all the rest, locked there by the lovers of the past.

Louis slips the padlock through the links of the fence. It makes a soft ‘ding’ as it brushes against the other padlocks hanging there. He clicks it shut, the delicate sound breaking the intimate silence that envelops Harry and Louis as they stand on the bridge and take in all the past promises of couples.

Louis watches as Harry brushes his finger over their padlock, over the L + H, fingernail tracing the engraving of ‘for life’.

‘This is cool.’ Harry murmurs. ‘Look at all of these padlocks. These are all people who believed they’d be in love forever.’ He sounds awed and maybe a little bit jealous of those couples who can so freely dedicate their futures to each other, with no thoughts of contracts and money and fame to take into consideration.

Almost as if he’s reading Louis mind, Harry says loudly and confidently,

“That’ll be us one day. This is gonna be us, I promise.” His eyes are shining with intensity and eagerness and Louis kind of wants to kiss him right then, but he can’t, so he contents himself with picking up Harry’s hand and pressing his palm to his cheek.

“Yeah. Soon,” he whispers into Harry’s large hand and then kisses the pale skin at his wrist, blue veins running visible under the thin skin.

Harry smiles at him, eyes soft, and then turns back to the bridge, looking out over the green water that sparkles and seems miles below them. He holds up the tiny key and they look at it, almost overcome with the symbolism of what they’re doing.

Feeling a little bit like an idiot, Louis leans forward and kisses the key, the cold metal shocking his lips. Harry tries to hide his grin and then pulls his arm back and launches the key as hard as he can. They watch as the tiny glint of silver arcs in the air, flashing as it spins over and over until they can’t see it anymore, not even when it hits the water.

‘Fuck, Lou.’ Harry breathes out, and his fingers clench around Louis’s, the other hand tightly grasping the railing as he leans far over the edge, trying to see where the key has landed. His knuckles are white, standing out against the dark metal of the railing.

‘Haz. It’s gone.’ Louis nudges him with his hip and wraps an arm around him, littlest finger softly stroking the exposed skin right above the waistband of his trousers.

‘Yeah. Yeah. Ok.’ Harry turns to him and smiles, a little bit watery. ‘Let’s go home, yeah?’

‘Let’s go home.’

With the sun setting behind them, rays glancing off the water under which a key now rests, they leave behind their padlock that will stay there, lonely next to all the other padlocks, until 5 years from now, when two boys, a little bit older, a little bit more broken by life, come back with a new padlock. They hold hands and these two boys kiss on the bridge in full view of the pedestrians strolling by, people who are unaware that a new promise is being made and an old one being fulfilled. Instead of promising strength for hurdles to come, the new padlock promises commitment for a future that holds so many opportunities for these two boys’ love, previously hidden behind backs and now displayed for the world to smile at.

Right next to the padlock that reads ‘L + H’, there now hangs a padlock that reads ‘Louis and Harry.’


End file.
